Dodane
chronograph 13th dragons paratrooper regiment officer - french special forces

Dodane bi-compax military chronograph watch from the thirteenth  Dragon paratrooper regiment (Regiment de Dragons Parachutiste) of the eighties. A watch specially made for the French army in small quantities for intelligence officers of the thirteenth RDP, special forces specializing in intelligence and deep infiltration of enemy territory. An atypical cushion-shaped watch, even unique for this brand whose production lists total manufacture of watches is with round cases.

The watch has a cushion-shaped case in black painted steel, with lines characteristic of water-resistant watches produced in the mid-seventies (like the Omega Speedmaster Mark II chronograph). This design, which succeeded round cases, was very fashionable then and is technically based on the evolution of the movements produced during this period which gained in functionality and very logically in size and thickness.

The Dodane watch brand is a French watch brand created around 1857 by Alphonse Dodane in the Doubs (at La Rasse first, before being transferred to Morteau to benefit from the railway infrastructures and the ease of trade in the city of Haut-Doubs). Manufacturer of watches and chronographs, the brand will very quickly become famous during the two wars through the production of onboard chronographs for aviation, which in the 1950s enabled it to win numerous lots in the calls for tenders for type 20 and 21 watches which would equip the French Air Force from 1954. (with the brands Breguet, Auricoste, and Airin) and given its regular production of onboard counters over time for Dassault aircraft, enable it to equip the flagship of European aeronautics by supplying Airbus-Eurocopter (with the chronograph devices of the Tiger assault helicopter or those of the Rafale fighter-bomber and Mirage 2000 of Marcel Dassault aircraft)

The 4534-13 model offered here is available in our Mostra collection watch shop located in the upper part of the Cours Mirabeau in Aix en Provence, at 3 Place Forbin. It comes with a travel case and a certificate of authenticity describing the model. The calibre of this watch is the Valjoux 7734 movement, a chronograph mechanism with seventeen jewels and equipped with an Incabloc that protects it from shocks. The dial is black, with two counters, a permanent small seconds type indicator on the right (which allows you to check that the watch is working at a glance) and a thirty-minute totalizer counter on the left. A date window is housed at the bottom of the watch at six o'clock. A circular railway materialized in white, with a tachometer around it. Everything is protected by a tempered and anti-reflective mineral glass.

In terms of collections, this watch, produced in small quantities (around a hundred copies) for the French special forces during the 1980s, shares with the Auricoste 7156-80 model the attraction exerted by the productions with vocation and military use of this period. A rare model sought after by many international collectors, this still affordable watch is of great interest whether it is in military watch collection or simply watchmaking.